BE-GOOD

Building an Ecosystem to Generate Opportunities in Open Data

Inspiration

Open data is digital public or private data that can be produced by a community, public service or firm. It is broadcasted in a structured manner using an open method and license guaranteeing both its free access and its re-use without any technical, legal or financial restrictions. Opening these data is driven by transparency, services to citizens and businesses development, generally within a "Smart cities" approach, or even the development of new services to stimulate economic activity. Despite the mass of data that is currently available, the number of services created from open data remains relatively marginal. In addition, the number of services that achieve viability and sustainability is even more so; economic models underlying the services based on open data are still in an emergent state.

Open data are a major asset for the development of innovative services and economic growth. The European Directive PSI 2013/37/EC on the re-use of public sector information, entered into force in 2003 and revised in 2013, encourages public sector agencies to make their information open and reusable. But it is clear that the development of this promising market is facing major barriers. Restricted commercial potential, limited availability of high-value data and a shortage of links between re-use of data initiatives and SME solution providers fail to fully exploit this potential. Given this situation, the partners of the BE-GOOD project intend to stimulate proactive reuse of data by focusing specifically on Public Sector Information (PSI).

Innovation

Within BE-GOOD, European partners are pooling their competences to identify their needs and expectations, to identify users needs and expectations regarding open data, to catalogue data from public actors in an effective and relevant manner, and to develop lasting relationships between public bodies involved in the opening of their data and solution providers. They will try to unlock and prepare the data to stimulate the creation of added-value services.

They will first support the development of commercial solutions based on open data in the field of infrastructure and environment, such as in emergency traffic management, air and water quality monitoring and infrastructure maintenance planning. They will also ensure service portability in other participating territories. In parallel, the partners will implement guidance for an international dissemination on public data publication procedures based on the European directive PSI 2013/37/EC.

As the main technical partner of the project, LIST will lead the project’s methodological and technological framework. It will contribute to the ecosystem structuration, tests in real-life conditions and in the implementation of the developed tool. LIST brings to the consortium its expertise not only in data technologies (open data platforms, data aggregation and integration, data quality and analysis, performance issues, etc.) but also in data driven services design, in software engineering and in support for tendering and call for challenges.

Impact

Thanks to BE-GOOD, new services, new companies and more generally new jobs using open data should emerge. Significant cost savings for data and solutions providers are also expected.

In Luxembourg, Luxinnovation, the national agency for innovation and research, will not only act as a relay with the Luxembourg ecosystem but also as a support to the activities developed in the project via the Luxembourg ICT Cluster. National players in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) will thus be directly sensitized and accompanied.

About LIST

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is a mission-driven Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) active in the fields of materials, environment and IT. By transferring technology to society as well as local companies, LIST contributes strongly to the building of tomorrow’s Luxembourg.